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2 Answers
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If you are building a native app, you probably want to make it in accordance with the device's UI guidance. An exception might be if you are making an application that provides an interface to a website (like the Twitter and Facebook applications for iPhone and Android) - here, you might want to design it to look like you website to provide familiarity to users.

The decision to follow or not follow UI guidance is yours entirely. Although it's typically a good idea to present users with a familiar interface of some kind - either another (web or desktop) application or the phone's interface.

The link works for me...I just checked it.
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Thomas OwensAug 24 '10 at 19:35

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The guidelines provided by Microsoft ARE the best practices. Just like you can find Apple guidelines for Mac and iOS development, GNOME and KDE guidelines for Linux development, and so on. Perhaps after the phone has been out for a while, individual trends will emerge, but it's way to soon for that to have happened.
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Thomas OwensAug 25 '10 at 22:57

Late to the question I know, but I've only just joined this site. This blog post from the MSDN UK Team has a great collection of resources about WP7 design, including the official Design and Interaction guidelines, design templates, and a series of videos.